Between May 1986 and September 1991, 104 patients of advanced or recurrent cancer were treated with combination therapy of hyperthermia and irradiation at UOEH hospital. Twenty seven patients had superficial tumors and 77 patients had deep seated tumors. They were irradiated with conventional fractionation. Hyperthermia was performed within 30 minutes after each irradiation once or twice a week using RF capacitive heating equipment, Thermotron RF-8. Total number of heating was 791 times. The most frequent side effect was pain under the electrode. It was observed in 444/791 (56 %) but most of them were mild and severe pain was seen only in 2 %. Burn due to heating was observed in 13 patiens (13 %). Severe side effect was observed in 9 patients consisting of 4 cases of ileus needing hospitalization, 3 cases of bleeding from intestine and tumor and 2 cases of intestinal fistula. It was not clear whether those damages were due to the heating itself or tumor growth. No patients had cardiovascular side effects.
